I've experienced it but I don't draw any broad conclusions about the nature of reality based on what I've witnessed. I also acknowledge the fragile nature of my brain given I've suffered from psychosis. Having said all that, it's fascinating that I remember always thinking froot loops, learn about the effect and notice, to my bewilderment, every online reference spelled fruit loops, only to see it revert back to froot in short order. I've seen the ford logo undergo weird alterations, seen the famous Britney Spears snake performance (which I've viewed many times, for research purposes) feature no glittery stickers on her chest with online discussion focusing on how people remember them despite her never wearing them, to now watching every video I can find and seeing temporary tatoos/stickers affixed to her bosom in every clip and no online discussion of that effect. I have memories of dilemma spelled as dilemna. If you search it now you'll see people who remember the n and cannot account for why they were taught incorrectly. There is no alternate spelling in any dictionary that normally explains such a discrepancy. There are more (fruit of the loom cornucopia among others) but those are the ones that stand out. It's diffucult to find sane online discussion about this. People jump to conclusions and allow their worldview to be colored by their interpretation of the effect, a sure path to insanity. For my part I can only say that it's expanded my view of the possibilities of our reality, and if I must profer an explanation other than my own unreliability as an eyewitness, I would say that we live in a simulation, but I have little confidence that it means anything to say that. It would be a pure coincidence if the language we use about things we have no way of measuring or testing is accurate.
Wow, those are some I hadn't read about before. I find the "simulation" explanation unsatisfying. Sure, we could be in a simulation. But if so, that doesn't really account for these changes as our memories would be part of the simulation as well and just as easily the memories themselves are where the error lies, but no one ever claims that-- they still see their own minds as objective reality and the rest of the world as the "simulation." Which to me, again, points to where the real and disturbing fault lies- our own cognition. Using the spelling/logo examples, how often do we really READ something familiar, versus just glance at it and unconsciously recognize it as something familiar and fill in the blanks? A lot. And so if we make an initial mistake in interpreting things or assuming something, it quickly becomes reinforced. The froot/fruit loops is a good example. If you hear the sound, you think "fruit." So when you look at a label, that's what you expect. And if you are just grabbing a box of cereal, that's what your mind fills in. I think for many, there is an ego about what we "know" we saw or heard, that exaggerates the precision of our cognition.
Can I blow your mind with a little computer science? Suppose there is an algorithm that can generate any digital string from scratch. A digital (binary) string is just a series of 1s and 0s, of some length x. In short hand, if this was nothing but 0s, it could be defined as [0]^x, 01s repeating would be [01]^x, 110101, repeating would be [110101]^x. So this works for repeating sequences, and is the basis for regular expressions. Ok. Now imagine that a short hand exists for any binary string, such that some starting sequence, and length is defined. Now, imagine that you had a computer, working to randomly run starting sequences and length. This would then become the equivalent of infinite monkey's typing on a typewriter, right? Except, that it would produce infinite digital content. Meaning, infinite movies, pictures, word documents, excel files, etc. So your algorithm could produce, digital evidence, of everything that has happened, but also everything that *could* have happened. Upon reflection, upon looking at history... how do you know which digital file is the one that actually happened?
At any rate, such an algorithm, in your simulator, can't replace your neurons from the actual experience... but it could show you why you can't trust your neurons.
Simulation stuff aside, we are inching towards such a "deep fake" world where it may become impossible to tell what content/media is genuine.
Correct. We are not long off from not being able to distinguish reality from fiction, because of digital content. In fact, it's a goal of mine, that I work toward almost every day.
Another effect I've noticed is the scalloped coastline of Oman. I remember as a kid trying to differentiate between Yemen and Oman and only thinking of the mnemonic device "yo" reading from left to right (Yemen is west of Oman) to tell them apart. They were two nearly identical rectangles at the foot of Saudi Arabia with straight boundaries. I cannot imaging going to such lenghts to remeber them if the map I see today was always the case. Anyone can discern that Oman's coastline lacks uniformity in contast to Yemen's practial rectangle of a nation. I'm sure this comes across as psychotic to most everyone. I don't know what to make of it myself. I probaly wouldn't deliberate about it so if it weren't for the other things I've experienced. Others have reported similar geographic discrepancies but that proves nothing. Maybe technology has given cartographers a more accurate impression of the true picture of Oman, thus leading to updated maps.
